Group Of ISPs Contest Legality Of EU Pirate Bay Ban

TorrentFreak reports that a group of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the Netherlands are taking the decision to block the Pirate Bay in their country to court. They claim that the those decisions to block the Pirate Bay in select countries are a violation of the EU’s ruling against the filtering of the internet.

There are two parts to the legal case these ISPs are launching. The first is that they believe DNS and IP address blocking is ineffective and denies subscribers free access to information. The second is that this breaks an EU ruling about filtering the internet. The two ISPs involved, Ziggo and XS4ALL, are appealing the decision to a court in the Hague that is ordering them to block the Pirate Bay.

The appeal includes mentions of the failed SOPA and PIPA legislation in the USA and it states that blocking the entire site is a disproportionate response. They also referenced recently published information by various ISPs that suggests blocking the Pirate Bay has a reverse effect on Bittorent traffic – causing it to rise not decline.